My letter to the NYTimes RE Israel’s Choice By The Editorial Board

Palestinian Life

For the past sixty sovereign years Israel's choice as a "Jewish
State" has been to oppress, persecute, impoverish and displace the
native non-Jewish population of historic Palestine.

The proposition that Israel needs to make peace in order to remain
"Jewish" is a dangerous proposal- and a dishonest argument: Official
demographic tallies intentionally exclude Palestinian men, women and
children pushed into forced exile, as if they do not exist. But they do exist, and they have
been living in stateless limbo for decades because a Jews-preferred
Israel refuses to respect the Palestinian refugees inalienable
legal, moral, ethical and natural right to return to original homes
and lands.

In an interconnected global marketplace of ideas does America really
want to be advocating the notion that citizen rights and an
individual's economic survival and security can or should depend on
arming religion with lethal weaponry- and tax payers funds.

Given the U.S. commitment to
religious freedom, and to the international covenants that
guarantee it as the inalienable right of every human being,
the United States seeks to:Promote
freedom of religion and conscience throughout the world as a
fundamental human right and as a source of stability for all
countries The Office
of International Religious Freedom( http://www.state.gov/j/drl/irf/
)

Refugees and the Right of Return
We call for a just solution to our refugee issue in accordance with
UN General Assembly Resolution 194. Our position on refugees is also
included and supported in the Arab Peace Initiative (API),
which calls for “a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem
to be agreed upon in accordance with UN General Assembly Resolution
194.” A just solution to the refugee issue must address two aspects:
the right of return and reparations.

Refugees, Borders & Jerusalem"Where, after all, do
universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home -
so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of
the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person;
the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he
attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are
the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal
justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without
discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they
have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action
to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for
progress in the larger world."Eleanor Roosevelt

Ralph
M Coury: "...The fact is that the “heresy”
of which Shavit speaks was a main current in Zionist
speculations from the outset. The new settlers, Theodor
Herzl (the founder of the Zionist movement) writes in his
diary in 1895, should “gently” expropriate the natives’
property and “try to spirit the penniless population
across the border by procuring employment for it in the
transit countries, while denying it any employment in our
own country. The property-owners will come over to our
side. But the process of expropriation and the removal of
the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly.
Let the owners of immovable property believe that they are
cheating us, selling us things for more than they are
worth. But we are not going to sell them anything back.”
(The Complete Diaries, NY, 1960, vol 1, P88.) "

Reflections
By An ARAB JEW by Ella Habiba Shohat "When my grandmother first
encountered Israeli society in the '50s, she was convinced
that the people who looked, spoke and ate so
differently--the European Jews--were actually European
Christians. Jewishness for her generation was inextricably
associated with Middle Easterness. My grandmother, who still
lives in Israel and still communicates largely in Arabic,
had to be taught to speak of "us" as Jews and "them" as
Arabs. For Middle Easterners, the operating distinction had
always been "Muslim," "Jew," and "Christian," not Arab
versus Jew. The assumption was that "Arabness" referred to a
common shared culture and language, albeit with religious
differences."UNITED NATIONS: Give Peace a Chance...
The year 2014 has been proclaimed the International Year of
Solidarity with the Palestinian People... “The objective
of the International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian
People is to promote solidarity with the Palestinian people as a
central theme, contributing to international awareness of (a) core
themes regarding the question of Palestine, as prioritized by the
Committee, (b) obstacles to the ongoing peace process, particularly
those requiring urgent action such as settlements, Jerusalem, the
blockade of Gaza and the humanitarian situation in the occupied
Palestinian territory and; (c) mobilization of global action towards
the achievement of a comprehensive, just and lasting solution of the
question of Palestine in accordance with international law and the
relevant resolutions of the United Nations.”

History
of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
"The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted by
the UN General Assembly on 10 December 1948, was the result of the
experience of the Second World War. With the end of that war, and
the creation of the United Nations, the international community
vowed never again to allow atrocities like those of that conflict
happen again. World leaders decided to complement the UN Charter
with a road map to guarantee the rights of every individual
everywhere. The document they considered, and which would later
become the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, was taken up at
the first session of the General Assembly in 1946. " http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/history.shtml

U.N.
Resolution 194 from 1948 Resolves that the refugees
wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their
neighbours should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable
date, and that compensation should be paid for the property of those
choosing not to return and for loss of or damage to property which,
under principles of international law or in equity, should be made
good by the Governments or authorities responsible;

Emanating from the
conviction of the Arab countries that a military solution to the
conflict will not achieve peace or provide security for the
parties, the council:

1. Requests Israel
to reconsider its policies and declare that a just peace is its
strategic option as well.

2. Further calls
upon Israel to affirm:

I- Full Israeli withdrawal from all the
territories occupied since 1967, including the Syrian Golan
Heights, to the June 4, 1967 lines as well as the remaining
occupied Lebanese territories in the south of Lebanon.

II- Achievement of a just solution to the
Palestinian refugee problem to be agreed upon in accordance with
U.N. General Assembly Resolution 194.

III- The acceptance of the establishment of
a sovereign independent Palestinian state on the Palestinian
territories occupied since June 4, 1967 in the West Bank and
Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital.

3. Consequently,
the Arab countries affirm the following:

I- Consider the Arab-Israeli conflict
ended, and enter into a peace agreement with Israel, and provide
security for all the states of the region.

II- Establish normal relations with Israel
in the context of this comprehensive peace.